Food, Fizzy, And Football: Unhealthy Food And Drink Promoted

Public health researchers from the
University of Otago, Wellington (UOW), are concerned that
some food and drink companies selling unhealthy food also
sponsor popular, televised sports in New Zealand.

The
authors reviewed the websites of 308 New Zealand sports
organisations covering 58 sports to identify sponsors and
conducted 18 interviews with key administrators from
national and regional sporting organisations. A quarter of
websites had links to sponsors.

Sponsors were classified
as healthy or unhealthy using the New Zealand Food and
Beverage Classification System nutrient criteria for energy,
fat, salt and fibre levels. The study found that a third of
food/beverage companies sponsoring sport could be classified
as unhealthy.

“McDonalds and Coke are the
greatest product sponsors, just like at the London
Olympics,” Associate Professor Signal noted.

“And one
of our most popular sports, rugby, has the unhealthiest
sponsorship by far with 23% of brands and logos linked to
unhealthy food. In contrast, netball has only 1% linked to
unhealthy food.

“Given the recent increase in obesity
amongst New Zealand children this is of considerable
concern,” says Associate Professor Signal.

Currently,
11% of children aged 5-14 are obese, up from 8% in 2006/7,
and at least 20% are overweight. The consumption of junk
food is a significant contributor to this problem. Obesity
is associated with a range of health problems including
childhood diabetes, and heart disease, diabetes and cancer
in later life.

“Our children deserve to be protected
from the pressure to eat junk food while enjoying healthy
outdoor activity, and parents need to be supported against
pester advertising in their efforts to promote healthy
eating to their children,” Associate Professor Signal
argues.

The study by the Health Promotion and Policy
Research Unit at UOW also found that some sponsors continued
to target children with additional marketing activities.

This is also developed through access to regional clubs
and youth players providing them with product samples,
merchandise and vouchers for purchasing more product.

“Counting logos does not capture the extent of
marketing in sports and probably underestimates the extent
of sponsorship,” say the researchers.

“Tactics
included the use of ‘Player of the Day’ certificates for
budding All White football players as young as four, and
promotion of ‘Powerade’ by the All Blacks.
‘Powerade’ is not generally recommended for children,”
Associate Professor Signal says.

The study found that
healthy food and beverage brands also sponsor sport, with
rugby again coming out on top with 21% of logos linked to
healthy foods and cricket next highest at 5%.

Increasing
such healthy sponsorship is a way to support children eating
a healthy diet, say the researchers, and has been shown to
have an impact. High participation rates in sport and
increasing recognition of how diet benefits athletic
performance suggest sports settings are ideal locations for
promoting healthy eating.

All sports administrators
identified the main benefit of sponsorship as financial.
Although many reported sports organisations felt concerned
about associating themselves with unhealthy foods or
beverages, others considered sponsorship income more
important than what type of food is being promoted.

Recommendations include sports codes requiring
members to place a higher priority on health when selecting
sponsors, and government regulation and funding to replace
unhealthy food sponsorship with healthy sponsorship, just as
for tobacco.

The recently created Health Promotion Agency
is currently responsible for tobacco sponsorship replacement
in sport. It would be a logical step to include replacement
of junk food sponsorship in their mandate.

The paper has
recently been published in BMC Public Health and is
funded by the Health Research
Council.

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